Spring Breakdown
Spring Breakdown is the nineteenth episode in season eight of . Synopsis The CSIs work on solving three separate homicides that occurred during Spring Break vacation. Plot The Miami team has their hands full with three dead people at the swanky Ciel Blue hotel: a young man is impaled on a poolside seating area, a young woman turns up dead in a washing machine and another young man is found drowned, buried up to his neck on the beach. Ryan wonders if the victim on the beach died accidentally, the tragic result of a prank by friends, while Walter wonders if the impaled man committed suicide. Calleigh is horrified that someone tossed a young woman into a washer. She recovers several items from the machine’s debris collector. In the morgue, an overwhelmed Dr. Loman determines the impaled man was shot with a flare gun, and glass found in the wound suggests he was shot through a window. Horatio and Walter find a room at the Ciel Blue with a broken window. The man staying there, Dean Butler, tells the CSIs he shot at someone with a flare gun the night before—a belligerent guy who wouldn’t leave his party, but he didn’t hit him. When the CSIs show him a picture of the man who was impaled, Dean doesn’t recognize him. Horatio takes the flare gun and performs an experiment to determine the trajectory the victim took, concluding that he fell from the roof—and happened to get shot by the flare gun on the way down. In the morgue, Dr. Loman tells Calleigh that the female victim was dead before she was thrown in the wash, likely from a blow to the head. He recovers a room key from the girl’s pocket, and the CSIs learn that the room it’s for belongs to Courtney Haywood. Tripp and Calleigh question Courtney at the hotel bar, but she doesn’t recognize the girl, though she admits she’s been pretty drunk for the past few days. She tells them she dropped her key on the beach at some point. Ryan and Jesse are surprised to hear Dr. Loman pronounce their case a murder: the young man was kicked in the head and knocked out before he drowned. Loman also points out a burn mark on his ear, identifying him as the guy Dean Butler shot with the flare gun. Dean recognizes this guy, telling Jesse and Ryan that he introduced himself as Paul “The Program” at the party. An ID bracelet from Walter’s victim and a print on a bead from Calleigh’s victim’s shirt lead them to the same place: the site of the Manic Beach Party. There, they talk to bouncer Ricky Halprin, whose prints were on the girl’s bead. Ricky recognizes her picture, telling the CSIs he had to kick her out of the party the previous day because of her drunken antics. He gives Calleigh the credit card she was running a tab on, identifying her as Alexis Wilkes. He also recalls her leaving with a hot blonde girl. Calleigh and Walter go to Alexis’s hotel room and find a large pool of blood—along with a picture of Alexis and the other two victims. Realizing they all went to the same college, the CSIs are finally able to identify the two men: Brad Donner was the one who was impaled, while Paul Arnett died on the beach. The CSIs get into Alexis’s social networking account and find a video showing Brad sleeping with a heavy blonde girl—and then mocking her, joined by Alexis and Paul. The bracelet found on Brad’s body leads the team to blonde Hillary Swanson, who tells Horatio and Walter that Brad and she fooled around—and then he got violent and punched her when she changed her mind. She denies killing him, telling the CSIs that the other girl, who stuck around after she left, might have. She identifies the other girl as Courtney Haywood. Courtney denies killing Brad. Dr. Loman shows Calleigh the marks left by the weapon used to kill Alexis, and Calleigh is able to match the marks to an iron from Alexis’s room. Ryan recovers a blonde hair from Paul’s shirt, and Calleigh recalls the bouncer at the beach party mentioning Alexis left with a blonde woman. Courtney gives a DNA sample, but when Walter tries to get a swab from Hillary, she refuses, claiming she fears a false positive. Travers analyzes the blonde hair from Paul’s shirt, noting that it’s badly degraded by bleaching and dyeing. Travers opines that the three victims didn’t sound like very nice people, and Tripp notes that Jill Quinn, the girl from the video, filed a complaint against Brad after the incident. Travers finds evidence that the person the hair belonged to took acne medication and was using an appetite suppressant, leading Tripp to wonder if Jill might have changed her appearance. Dave Benton takes an old picture of Jill and alters her weight and hair color—and Tripp and Ryan recognize her as Courtney Haywood. Horatio confronts Courtney, who first tries to deny it, pointing out that she’s not blonde. When Jesse points out she was before she dyed her hair that morning, she relents, saying she pressed charges against the three, and nothing was done, so she took matters into her own hands. When Horatio asks her if spending the rest of her life in prison is worth it, she answers, “It is.” “Fair enough,” Horatio says, as she’s led off to prison, proudly smiling. Until the bars of her cell are slammed shut behind her, and immediately she takes on a fearful and regret full look, realizing what she had just done. Cast Main Cast *David Caruso as Horatio Caine *Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne *Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe *Rex Linn as Frank Tripp *Eva LaRue as Natalia Boa Vista *Eddie Cibrian as Jesse Cardoza *Omar Miller as Walter Simmons Guest Cast * Christian Clemenson as Tom Loman * Wes Ramsey as Dave Benton * Christopher Redman as Michael Travers * Simon Miller as Brad Donner * Alan Ritchson as Paul Arnett * Teresa Castillo as Alexis Wilkes * Peter Mooney as Dean Butler * Chelsea Hobbs as Courtney Haywood * Cassie Scerbo as Hillary Swanson * Shawn Woods as Ricky Halprin * Henderson Wade as Cabana Boy * Elizabeth Mathis as Female MC * Alexander Rodriguez as DJ * Kallie Flynn Childress as Jill Quinn See Also Category:CSI: Miami Episodes